Aircraft

[Texas Lawdog]

QD, I made a post about that B29 last week. I did some research on it and posted all the info I could find out about it.

[Queasy Dillo]

Oops.  Sorry about that.  I just ventured back last week, so I guess I just missed it.  That's about as vigilant as I get, I guess.   

[Texas Lawdog]

QD, I noticed in your profile that you are in Waco. My beautiful wife graduated from BU.  We always make an annual pilgrimage to "The Health Camp" for burgers.

[Queasy Dillo]

I'm here a little while longer, at least, until I can wring a commercial certificate out of TSTC.  Funny you mention Health Camp, though - went there just the other day.  Survived the Circle of Doom and everything and ate probably the un-healthiest burger in town.   

[Texas Lawdog]

That's the irony of it! We usually go down there about once a year. Maybe just once a year won't hurt us too bad.

[kflach]

Out of curiosity, if you could own (and obviously fly) one of them, which would you choose? I think the B-17s, the B-29s and the Corsairs are beautiful planes, but the plane I'd love to own and fly would be the P-51 Mustang. I love the freedom and maneuverability of fighters - everything else feels like I'm in a bus.

Of course, one of the Fokker Dr. 1 Triplanes would be fun to have as well...

[Leo Tanner]

The gull wing Corsair was one hell of a plane.  The engine was so strong only a select group of military pilots could handle them.  They had a Marine version that was set up to destroy just about anything in its path.  I believe that was the first model I ever built as a kid, my Dad was obsessed with them.

[Queasy Dillo]

Hmmm...if constrained by the finances and operating restrictions of the real world, a Cessna O-2A wouldn't be unwelcome in the hangar, even if it's not a warbird in the tradition sense. 

Outside that, I'd take a B-25.  Preferably a glass-nose model in two-tone MTO camouflage.  Though I gotta admit that a P-40B would be a very tempting option. 

[Texas Lawdog]

QD, There are some former FAC's from the VietNam War that might disagree with you.  We have an Oscar Duece in the CAF inventory. One of my wife's friends father was one of the "Black Sheep". He broke Pappy's leg in a wrestling match at the O club. I would have to say that I would have to choose between a P38, a Spitfire, or a ME109. That would be a hard choice, but I would choose the P38.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

P-47c would be a good choice for me guys. There's just something that's so muscular about it. A Hellcat wouldn't be a bad choice either................Buck

[Queasy Dillo]

There's a couple down here.  One in the black and red air force markings, another in a wholly fictional scheme that'd look at home in Rhodesia were it not for the USAF insignia (if you can puzzle that out) and one down around San Marcos in the standard gray with the late-run bubble window on the pilot's side.  I talked to the pilot for a few hours at an airshow in San Antonio several years back - he'd flown that exact bird with the 20th TASS out of Da Nang, then bought it when it as surplus postwar.  Beautiful restoration job.  Even had the underwing ordnance and that monster radio package in the back. 

As an amusing aside, the nose art was (I think) Charlie Chaser, which featured Snoopy on his doghouse making a low pass over a cartoon VC.  He said that was an original piece of nose art from the war.  Charles Schultz sent them to the stencils along with a letter and an autograph, all three of which this particular pilot still had in his possesion.  Said those were probably worth more than the O-2 at this point. 

I have several hundred pictures around here...somewhere.

And my favorite fictional character was an O-2 driver...among other things.  But we're still working on that.   

[Texas Lawdog]

Well, There is supposed to be an Oscar Duece in our inventory, but I have not found it's location.

[Leo Tanner]

Watched a movie last night called The Four Horsemen of the Appocolypse.  It was a Glen Ford film from 1962.  It wasn't really a war flick but was set in france durring the war.  Me and the wife enjoyed it but the icing on the cake came at the end when they have some great footage of B 17s and B25s heading out to destroy a hidden Panzer division.  There is a shot of the "aluminum sky" that is very impressive.  They pretty much block out the sun.

[Texas Lawdog]

Glen Ford was a good actor, served in WW2. I always enjoy watching hin in Westerns.

[Leo Tanner]

That's why I got it.  Like I said it aint a war movie but in the few scenes they show fighting it's real.  A Brittish commander is running the show but they made no mistake in showing the circled star when the 17s took off.

[Texas Lawdog]

When my back gets better I hope to take a more active part with the B24/B29 Squadron of the CAF. I plan on getting a digital camera and taking pictures of the planes at the Cavanaugh Museum of Flight.

[kflach]

I must admit I'm always awed when they show those "aluminum sky" scenes in the WW II movies. The idea of them sending more planes out on just one raid than we had in the whole US Navy during the time I served is rather incredible.

[Texas Lawdog]

Those bombers carried sometimes as many as 10 in each plane.  If 60 planes were shot down and the crews lost, that was 600 men gone. The shear number of crews lost was staggering.

[Leo Tanner]

My Great Uncle used to tell my dad about the flack and the tracers.  A plane on his wing one minute and then just a big gap in the sky the next.  He and his crew made it home but a lot of their friends did not.

[Texas Lawdog]

They have a large granite monument to the 8th AF over in England, similar to the Wall in DC.